John Kitzhaber is a former governor of Oregon. A Democrat, he served as governor from 1995 to 2003 and in 2010 became the first person to be elected to the office three times. He was elected to a fourth term in 2014 and resigned in February 2015.

Before being elected to his first term as governor, Kitzhaber served in the Oregon House and for 12 years in the Oregon Senate, eight of them as Senate president. After completing his second term as governor, Kitzhaber, a physician, returned to medicine and campaigned for better public access to health care. A graduate of Dartmouth College, he received his medical degree from Oregon Health & Science University.